132,625
edits
Changes
From TheBookbag
Jump to navigationJump to searchno edit summary
[[Category:Fantasy|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Fantasy]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real MagicA G Slatter|authortitle=Emily Croy BarkerThe Briar Book of the Dead|rating=35
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Feeling the need for a little escapism and fantasy reading, I chose this debut novel by Emily Croy Barker, expecting an enchanted but modern fairy tale for grown ups. However, I have to say, I was a little disappointed. The book starts out brilliantly, introducing us to Nora in her mundane life as she struggles to write her university thesis whilst dealing with a relationship breakdown, then by chapter two, suddenly transports the reader to a magical other-world, rather like ''Alice in WonderlandThere'' or ''Harry Potter''. We then follow Nora as she meets the enchanting, beautiful, Ilissa in s a land where everything turns out part of me that wants to be too good keep this just to be true and looks are very much deceivingmyself for however long I can. Nora is literally locked into marriage with Ilissa's son Raclin and we learn that her only way out This secret magic of this entrapment is through the help of magician Aruendielmy own, all mine, an enemy of Ilissa and from another land named Ulandat last. A promising start, suggesting unexpected events, conflicts, a fast paced story and twists I just want to come. Unfortunately, enjoy it for me, the intrigue soon faded and the exciting plot beyond this never really materialiseda while.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405913096</amazonuk>}}''
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Rachel Greenlaw
|title=Compass and Blade
|rating=3.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ben PeekT Kingfisher|title=The GodlessThornhedge|rating=4.5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=These are strange times in Mieera, the land made from the bodies of dead gods. The Leeran army is closing in on a Mieera defended only by a scratch army of citizens and The Dark, a band of mercenary saboteurs led by cynically tough Bueralan. Ayae the cartographer's apprentice has a more personal crisis. She's pulled from You had a burnt out building alive and totally unscathedright to retake your place. This can only mean one thing: she's one of the cursed. As the effects of this newly endowed immortality hit her she must decide what to do. Zaifyr, the mysterious charmed man, has some ideas but then so do the sinister Keepers which doesn't help much. Meanwhile that army is getting closer…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447251245</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Karen MaitlandNicole Jarvis|title=The Vanishing WitchA Portrait in Shadow
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=More and higher taxes are being levied on the English by teenage King Richard II and his uncle/advisor John of Gaunt to pay for the wars against France. They may cause annoyance to the rich but they're breaking the poor, people like Lincolnshire river boat man Gunter and his family. Meanwhile some 'I want all of the better off are facing problems from other quarters. Cloth merchant Robert of Bassingham is losing his stock before it arrives due Florence to theft and unrest among the weavers in Flanders. Itknow my name's not a good time to be English and eventually something will snap; we're heading towards 1831 and the peasants will be revolting.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147221501X</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Thomas D Lee
|title=Perilous Times
|rating=3
|genre= Fantasy
|summary= ''Hate is the path of least resistance''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=AJ SmithAmelia Estelle Dellos|title=The Dark Blood (The Long War)Delilah Recovered|rating=54
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=The lands of Ro are slowly being subjugated by the evil sorceresses known We meet Dee at a point when her life isn't going as The Seven Sistersplanned but things might, just might, be about to look up. Their only hope is Out of work, about to kill them and only one man lose her flat, Dee is up for an accountant's job. But it's not to be. Dee is attacked by two men calling themselves witch hunters. She survives the task: the Dark Blood assassin, Rham Jasattack but not unscathed. He chooses master forger and fixer Kale as his assistant but, as this will reduce KaleWitch hunters? What on earth has that to do with Dee? She's just an ordinary woman, living an ordinary life expectancy markedly, Kale's not keen. Meanwhile Utha, albino Black Order cleric, his squire Randall, axe maiden Halla Summer Wolf, Timon the Butcher et al Slivers of memory of things that are dragged into a bloody conflict during which they have not ordinary at all return to fight for more than just their own survivalher and things will never be the same....|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>178185226X</amazonuk>B0BKYFDLLV
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Guy AdamsHadeer Elsbai|title=The Rain-Soaked BrideDaughters of Izdihar|rating=54
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Drawing inspiration from Egypt, ''The last thing that Daughters of Izdihar'' explores the afflicted people see before their death is lives of two women who could not be more different, yet find themselves fighting for the rights of women and weavers – those with magical abilities - in a wet woman in white. The last thing they feel is their own personal rain cloud soaking society pitted against them while everywhere else remains dry. All also happen Nehal, born into the upper class, wishes to be in top government jobs. What's happening? British Intelligence Department 37 (in attend the form of August Shining Weaving Academy to learn to control her abilities and Toby Greene) then join the military, but instead she is there to find outforced into an arranged marriage with Nico. This may not be the full extent of Giorgina on the problems facing them though; other hand did not with have a South Korean delegation coming privileged upbringing like Nehal and feels great pressure to provide for her family and maintain their reputation, whilst secretly attending meetings of the UK Daughters of Izdihar – a group campaigning for talks and Augustwomen's sister April wanting rights. Giorgina also happens to get be in on the actlove with Nico. What follows is a story of an unjust society, filled with hypocrisy and cruelty, from which blossoms a group of admirable women fighting for their rights and overcoming their personal obstacles.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0091953162</amazonuk>0356520471
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Andrez BergenHeather Fawcett|title=Depth Charging Ice Planet GothEmily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Georgie McCool Emily Wilde is an expert academic scholar on faerie lore, and she has always known what shetravelled extensively, and researched meticulously, to write her life's wanted work, the very first encyclopaedia of faeries. Whilst she is brilliant at research and pursued it until speaking to faeries, she has itis not so good with people. She got her dream job writing comedy So when she finds herself far, far North in the small village of Hrafvsnik, having somehow offended the village matriarch, she's about is not sure what she has done, nor how to get redeem herself and put her own showfinal investigations for her book back on the right track. Enter Wendell Bambleby, her dashingly handsome and she got her dream guyinsufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, Neal. Onlyall charm and delight, shemuch to Emily's not so sure she has him anymorefrustration. But why is he here? What does he want? And what exactly is going on with the faerie folk around Hravsnik?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1409154912</amazonuk>0356519120
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The Winner's Curse (The Winner's Trilogy)Christopher Golden|authortitle=Marie RutkoskiRoad of Bones|rating=43.5|genre=TeensHorror|summary=Kestrel has two alternative futures ahead The Kolyma Highway… the 'Road of herBones'… the R504. As Stretching for over a thousand miles across Siberia, it's one of the daughter world's most notorious routes. For months of the year it's a general spread of sheet ice suspended above the permafrost surrounding it, while its 'spring' sees it turn into a vasthuge blodge of unremitting, apocalyptic-level mud, expansionist empirewhich dries into rutted, she can make a politically advantageous marriage or she can enlist in the militarypuddly dust. Kestrel doesn I don't want either think google streetview updates it very often. Built because Stalin wanted so much uranium and her other Siberian minerals, and because he wanted to give too many people a lesson, it legendarily cost a life every metre it covers. You can easily find documentaries about it online, but that's a bit rich, for one of our main characters, Felix 'Teig' Teigland, is spent in a delicate game of manoeuvres film-maker, doing a recce with her father as she tries his cameraman buddy, John Prentiss – who's mostly there to put off encourage the decisionproject to fruition to claw back some of the funds he'd invested in the pair's prior TV projects. They pick up their oh-so-chatty local guide, gain the company of a local beauty, and fetch up at the guide's childhood village. And that's where things start to go awry…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408858207</amazonuk>1803361476
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tim HallAndrew Givler|title=Shadow of the WolfSoul Fraud (The Debt Collection Book 1)
|rating=4
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=The child Robin Loxley is mysteriously separated from his father during what had been ''Matt has a routine foray into the forest. In grief and bewilderment Robin becomes a loner, choosing to raise himselfterrible life. HeSeriously—it's more than happy with the solitary lifestyle until he meets Marian Delbosque, spoilt daughter of local gentryawful. Their friendship It is cemented as they play together but their future won't all be childish games. They have a quest and Robin, as a winter-born, has a destiny so bad that he can't begin to guess. The clue Dan the Demon is shocked when Matt turns down his infernal offer: 10 years of a blissful life in the mysterious words he heard whispered in the forest after exchange for his father's disappearance: ''Not yet. Too soon. He must suffer the woundssoul.''|amazonuk=<amazonuk>191020000X</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The Tropic of Serpents (A Memoir by Lady Trent)Olivie Blake|authortitle=Marie BrennanThe Atlas Six
|rating=4
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=We are in sequel territoryDark, so we must hope that things have escalated for Lady Trentsharp, and that she is finding life even harder than before. And it is – as much as she would like to go dragon hunting with her husband she cannot. (And by dragon hunting I donhighly inquisitive, ''The Atlas Six''t mean killing them, I mean being a natural historian for the species in makes its publishing debut after becoming a world that would rather massacre them for industrial purposes)Tik-Tok sensation. Here, repressed by the Victorian society she lives in, she can just about raise another exhibition together, to a different corner of the world, but she won't find herself with the possibility of observing dragons – she is instead faced with the demand that she MUST hunt dragons…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1783292415</amazonuk>1529095239
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Queen of the Dark ThingsDaniel Abraham|authortitle=C Robert CargillAge of Ash
|rating=4.5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Colby Stevens lost his best friend to an army We meet Alys under the most northerly of fairies six months ago. And things havenOldgate't got much better since. The Seventy-Twos four bridges, she has a powerful knife in her hand and angry bunch a meeting that she dreads. Meanwhile the City of demons want Colby to deal with Kithamar is at a point in the Queen turning of years when the Dark Thingsworlds are at their thinnest and all things are possible. But Colby knows, whatever It is the night between the funeral of a Prince and the demons have planned for him, it isn't goodcoronation of his successor. Whatever he does For a night the Kithamar is playing into their plans in some way or anotherun-ruled.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0575130148</amazonuk>0356515427
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Dead Man's HandAnn Sei Lin|authortitle=John Joseph Adams (editor)Rebel Skies|rating=5|genre=Short StoriesTeens|summary=''Dead Man's Hand'' features short stories with themes ranging from time travel and vampires to theology; at first glance it definitely appears to be an eclectic mix. These stories are linked by Kurara has spent her entire life as a servant on the genre of the weird westMidori, which is defined by its elasticity. John Joseph Adams' helpful introduction outlines a massive dining hall floating in the main features sky where soldiers of the weird west Empire come to drink and provides make merry between their conquests. However, when a clearman named Himura arrives to tell her that she is a Crafter like him, insightful guide someone with the power to this little-known genreform paper into whatever she desires – a power sought after all across the Empire. Far from being mismatchedHe asks her to come with him, to leave the eclectic nature life of this collection dreary servitude that is all she has known. Well, soon Kurara won't have any say in fact the greatest strength of matter, because the weird west genre. Unconstrained Midori is destroyed by narrow generic conventionsa monstrous paper spirit known as a shikigami, and she is forced to flee out into the authors in this collection have plundered world. She joins Himura aboard the deepest depths of their imaginations. The result? A colourfulOrihime, a sky-ship whose express purpose is to hunt down shikigami, memorable and, above all, ''imaginative'' collection a whole world of fiction.adventure awaits her…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1783295465</amazonuk>1406399590
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ian IrvineB09Q3P283Y|title=Justice: Tainted Realm: Book 3Shadebringer|author=Grayson W Hooper|rating=54
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=''The final battle. The ultimate priceClyde Robbins signs up for the US Army during the Vietnam War.He'' The deads not really that invested in the fight against Communism, regenerated King Lyf and his Cythonian army are poised to attack as nor is he particularly interested in a career in the army of Axil Grandysmilitary. If he's honest - which Clyde usually is, complete with the other four of the five legendary Heroes. Rix has to stop them all with the help of Tali (the escaped Pale slave)himself at least - he hasn't got many choices and this one, Glynnie (the ex-maid)at least, and an army gets him out of Rixthe rut he's own who would rather fight him than fight for himin. As Lyf and Axil both hunger for the final master pearl that sits beneath TaliHe's skull, the endgame approaches. Meanwhile Tobry, former best friend of Rix good in training and now an unpredictably dangerous Caithe shape-shifter, is still alive and without hopequickly put onto a non commissioned officer training course. Although the 10 year old Rannilt would argue He's chuffed with that last bithimself.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841498300</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jim ButcherJennifer Saint|title=Skin Game (Dresden Files)Elektra|rating=54|genre=FantasyLiterary Fiction|summary=Harry Dresden is and has been a lot 'Elektra' by Jennifer Saint tells the story of things: the only wizard three women who live in the Chicago phone bookheavily male dominated world of Ancient Greece. Cassandra, PIClytemnestra, reluctant Knight of the Winter Court, even apparently dead. Now it looks as though he's about to relive the death and Elektra are all bit but a bit more permanently. The parasite players in his brain is still killing him while he's stranded as warden on the island penal colony story of Demonreachthe Trojan War. Hold tight though – Yet Jennifer Saint shows us that often the good news is that he's about to be liberated. The bad? The liberator is Queen Mab who wants Harry to do a bit of robbery beside a former arch enemy of his. If he refuses, silent women have the parasite will kill him most compelling stories and then slope off to kill everyone he knows and cares about, including his little daughter Maggie. However, nothing is simple, even thisthe most extreme furies. There are catches, hell's bells there are!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>035650090X</amazonuk>1472273915
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Manifest Destiny Volume 1Dean Koontz|authortitle=Chris Dingess, Matthew Roberts and Owen GieniQuicksilver|rating=42.5|genre=Graphic NovelsThrillers|summary=ItMeet Quinn Quicksilver. He's not had the chance to get to be a mercurial character yet, for he's 1804 lived in a nun-run orphanage since he was a three-day old foundling, and some newlynow is starting a career on a needless magazine's staff. But when this book starts he IS now ''subject to sudden or unpredictable changes of mood or mind'', for something – call it unearthly intuition, call it mind-American soldiers are expanding the territory control, call it a supernatural urge – has demanded of him that he go to the westa derelict diner, find a gold coin worth a fortune, at cash the orders value of President Jefferson – orders which allude to it out of his bank and prepare for going on the pioneering party encountering some very unusual thingslam. And they do – first a huge arc all this is just in time for two of greenery, putting the modern reader those typical Men in mind Black types to turn up and suggest he's of the Missouri landmark arch as bastardised interest to them. Helped to escape, he finds his flight is interrupted by something along the lines other instances of him acting without being in control, the Statue of Liberty discovery that he is not unique in the original 'Planet having some kind of the Apes'burgeoning power – and a whole lot more besides. But when that site gets attacked the weirdness certainly starts to show itself…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1607069822</amazonuk>1542019885
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Melanie RawnTasha Suri|title=Glass Thorns - ThornlostThe Jasmine Throne
|rating=4
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=The Touchstone Players are back and now mostly married but On the show must go on. Talking night of whichher sacred burning, it's their playwright Cayden's 21st naming dayPrincess Malini defies her brother and refuses to step on to the pyre. He's come of age but his aristocratic mother would still rather he went She is immediately sent to court as be imprisoned on the Hirana: an ancient temple that was once filled with a courtier than community of people who got powers from the entertainer that his wizard/elven/fae heritage equips him formysterious deathless waters. However Cade has other concernsBut now the temple is nothing more than an overgrown, decaying ruin. HeOne day, the dwarf glister, Mieka who wields Cade's Malini witnesses a girl kill someone with magic, Rafe (who manipulates it) and Jeska the masker (who can literally become anyone) are no longer the court favourites. AlsoInstead of reporting her for such a gruesome crime, you remember Malini claims that the danger that Cade foresaw for Mieka girl saved her from Mieka's wife in his elsewhen premonitions? Well, there's more! (There follows some spoilers an attacker and begs for the previous novels so read them first before reading ongirl to become her own personal maidservant.)|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781166641</amazonuk>0356515648
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rebecca AlexanderGenevieve Gornichec|title=The Secrets of Life and DeathWitch's Heart|rating=4.5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=A girl covered modern and approachable reimagining of the Norse myths that centres around a witch named Angrboda. She hides in magic sigils dies in London watched by Jackdaw (Jack) Hammond. Jack had tried to cure a forest at the edge of the nine worlds, remembering nothing of her past life but that fact that she was survived burnt at the girl escapedstake three times because of Odin's wrath. Now Jack has another chance Her attempts to provide the treatment linking them live in peace, however, are quickly thwarted when Loki shows up with Elizabethan alchemist/mathematician/royal advisor John Dee. Indeed some would even call Dee a sorcerer. Jack could achieve so much if her literal heart—the one that was cut from her chest before she does it better was tied to the next time but the fight won't be easystake—and refuses to leave her alone. SheAfter an initial period of mistrust, Angrboda begins to fall for Loki's not charms, and the only one who wants her new subjecttwo start an unusual family made of up a half-dead daughter, a son that's a wolf, although she may be the only one who knows how to save herand another son that's a snake.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0091953243</amazonuk>1789097061
}}
{{newreview|title=Hilda and the Black HoundFrontpage|author=Luke PearsonHannah Whitten|rating=4.5|genretitle=Graphic Novels|summary=Hilda and For the Black Hound is the fourth book in the “Hildafolk” series, each of which is a self-contained tale about a highly inquisitive little girl and her adventures. This time Hilda joins the Sparrow Scouts and befriends a house spirit whilst in the meantime a mysterious beast stalks the town of Trolberg.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1909263184</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Tanya Huff|title=The Wild Ways: An Enchantment Emporium Novel (Enchantment Emporium 2)Wolf|rating=4.5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Charlie GaleIn Red's family, the lass who has magic in her music (literally!)first daughter becomes queen, leaves the rest of and the family behind to play at second daughter becomes a Celtic festival on sacrifice. To Red's misfortune, she is the Canadian coastsecond daughter. You can never leave Sent alone into the woods with nothing but the Gale family behind though even when cape on her back, Red knows what to expect: within the problem woods is an oil company drilling offshore in a seal sanctuary areawolf, and he is the one who will decide the fate of their kingdom. This may If she is not be a popular occupation but worthy sacrifice, the oil company has the clout monsters he keeps contained to use a little leverage. Charlie pits herself against them with the help of a Selkie family but in woods will be released, and the process (family link incoming) also pits herself against fabled kings he keeps hostage will never be returned—or so the formidable Aunt Catherinestories go. Back home Allie is having trouble with JackBut when Red enters the woods, expecting nothing more than to be killed within the young sorcerer dragon they rescued from hour, she finds that the underworld last timelegends are lies. Indeed, in the Gale households thereThe wolf is not a monster—he's no such thing as peace and quiet anymore!a man.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781169624</amazonuk>0356516369
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart and Jack CohenJohn Gwynne|title=The Science of Discworld IV: Judgement Day (Science of Discworld 4)Shadow Of The Gods|rating=4.5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=The wizards Shadow Of The Gods is the first installment of the Unseen University are custodians Bloodsworn Saga, set in the era of Roundworld. It may be different from their own turtle-carried Discworld (it's round for a start!) but they're still rather fond the Vikings in the shadow of it. HoweverRagnarok, there's a problem: when the Church of the Latter Day Omnians Gods have taken a shine battled and their bones lie scattered for all to it too see. This story is the ultimate in High Fantasy, and would like John Gwynne certainly does justice to claim it. A court case will decide the winnergenre, with mythical creatures, archaic language and battles galore. This is a court case thick book, with an intricate plot and fascinating characters that will have are woven together to create a guest spectator. For Marjorie Daw (yes, like the nursery rhyme) has arrived from Roundworld just wonderfully realistic and gritty world in timewhich our heroes must do battle. What on Earth will happen next?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0091949807</amazonuk>0356514218
}}
